Health Care Fine Art

Missing Dog

Boots is missing

I just got back from a two-hour hike around our ponds, lake and swamp looking for Boots. Boots is our 10-year old Australian Shepard. He's been missing for a day and that is not like him. I'm worried about him.

Since we live in the country ("in the middle of nowhere") the dogs are free to roam; no fences, no leash. Usually it is not a problem but... I hear that you can get GPS devices for dogs to keep track of them...

I did find evidence of fresh beaver activity at the swamp. They are cutting down the beautiful River Birch trees near the tree house.

We'll Be Right Back

Please excuse me as I take a break from blogging. I'll be back with the New Year.
Merry Christmas!

Gull Prepares a Meal

 

Ring-billed Gull drops shell to reveal the meat

On our morning walk today I noticed some interesting gull behavior. They would fly strait up in the air with a shell in their mouth then toss it to the ground. Then they would drop down on the shell to eat the meat; kind of like using a nutcracker to get into a walnut. 

I was lucky enough to capture the behavior in the pictures above.

We saw this several times. I have to say that most of the time the shells did not crack open. They were only dropping it on the sand.

Shorebird Identification challenging

Sanderling eating a scallop

Naming the birds that occur along the beach here is fun but it can be frustrating. Sometimes it is not at all obvious what the small birds are that run along the beach in front of us. Often I casually refer to them as "Peeps", which is a general term.

One of our guests this weekend (Mary) brought along the the Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America. That book convinced us that with the dark shoulder (seen above) the bird I photographed this morning is a Sanderling.

Butterfly Wing Scales

Magnified Butterfly Scales

Today I am starting to create a new series of images; butterfly wing scales. Above is one of my first attempts.

The picture reads a pure abstraction, simply a pattern. However, this is an unaltered close-up view of a butterfly's wing. The colored patterns on butterfly wings are created by minute scales or plates. These scales are pigmented but they also can have iridescence, like you see in the blue scales above. The iridescent colors are created by the play of light on the surface.

Thanks to Dr. José Leal for letting me have access to a dissecting microscope to do this work.

Sanibel - Birds

Terns on the beach at sunrise

One of the reasons I love Sanibel is the birdwatching. There are lots of birds and many of them are large and tame. That makes for easy birdwatching and bird photography. This morning as we walked onto the beach at sunrise there were three Magnificent Frigatebirds floating just 30-feet over our heads. Spectacular!

Then, as we walked along the beach we saw a group of terns resting on a sandbar (see picture above).

Sanibel is an important destination for bird photographers because of the 5,000 acre Ding Darling  National Wildlife Refuge. One reason Sanibel will remain wonderful is that 65% of the lsland is protected by nature preserves.

Sanibel

The Beach on Sanibel

Yesterday we arrived on Sanibel; a small island on the gulf side of Florida. We spend two-weeks here every December. Above is a picture I took as we walked the beach this morning.

Sanibel is where I do all my shell photography. In addition to the wonderful Shell Museum, the beach is full of great shells. Below is a shot I took this morning looking down at the shells I was walking on.

Tree Planting Week

365 new trees are being planting on the Prairie Garden Trust this week; more subjects to photograph. Jamie Coe and Matt Barnes (above) are doing most of the digging and planting.

We are planting 4 kinds of native trees:

• Wild Plum
• Swamp White Oak
• Shagbark Hickory
• Burr Oak

Burr Oaks are one of my favorite trees. Here is a picture I took of their acorns:

New YouTube Video

Today Lorna added this three-and-a-half-minute video clip on the "About" page of my website. It explores the connections between my medical background, my art and where I live. Thanks to Steve Mays and Lorna for making this happen.

Voting in the Middle-of-Nowhere

My 85-year old mother Joan voting in the Dixie Christian Church basement today.

I live in the middle-of-nowhere; our house is located off-a-gravel-road which itself is off-a-gravel-road. There are a lot of disadvantages to living in a remote rural area:

• No good restaurants
• No art museums or galleries
• No theater
• No live music

But there are a couple of advantages. One is that voting is fast, easy and pleasant. There was no line when I showed up to vote today; just four friendly volunteers to help me. They all knew my name; no one asked for identification.

Another advantage of living here is that nature can be right at your backyard. I don't have to travel anywhere to take my nature pictures, I can just walk out the door.

I wouldn't move if you paid me!